Average fresher slowly being elbowed out of IIM placements

Mahima Puri & Shreya Biswas, ET BureauJan 15, 2010, 04.06am IST

NEW DELHI: India's top business schools are set to see the return of giddy pay packets — perhaps sooner than expected — reflecting a change in the student profile that is excessively skewed in favour of those with work experience, this placement season.

Potential employers at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will mostly meet students with work experience of up to three years, portending a trend where the average fresher may be slowly getting elbowed out in recruitment and admissions at India's premier B-schools. At least 60% of students in IIM Calcutta, 62.5% in IIM Lucknow and 68% in IIM Bangalore showing up before recruiters this season will have had corporate stints. At IIM Shillong, the number is evenly matched.

Early signs are that the so-called lateral placements — where companies hire only experienced hands — that kick off the IIM hiring season will be a blowout with the average pay package expected to rise 20-25%. At IIM Lucknow, for instance, 35 students with corporate stints have landed a job within four days of initiating the process.

IIM-C, too, has made a promising start to its laterals. Its students with corporate background have received offers from companies like Cognizant Consulting, Deloitte Consulting, the Hinduja Group and Nasdaq-listed IT service firm Virtusa Corp. Others such as the Essar Group and Genpact are also expected to come calling.

"There's definitely an upswing for laterals this year," says IIM-C external relations secretary Samyukktha Thirumeni. The reason could be that corporates are changing their choice of recruits.

Companies typically shortlist candidates as per their prerequisites though in recent years they are leaning towards senior- and middle-level management roles. To fill a senior position, a consulting firm would prefer an experienced MBA while a manufacturer would look at a technical person with managerial skills.

IIMs seem to have responded to these needs, absorbing many candidates with diverse backgrounds in recent years. For instance, IIM-L's batch of 270 students last year had 70 students eligible for laterals. This year, that number has risen to 200 in a batch of 320. At IIM-C, the lateral recruitment tally has risen to 170 from 156 a year earlier.

"IIMs have been working on getting the right mix of students, freshers and experienced hands, over the past few years," says IIM-L admissions chairperson Prof Himanshu Rai.

Another reason is that often, graduates who fail to enter IIMs at the first attempt opt for a job and give it another shot later. "A (diverse) profile of a batch helps IIMs invite many potential recruiters," says Prof Himanshu Rai.

Businesses hobbled by the slowdown are returning to their aggressive hiring habits as the recovery gathers pace, according to HR heads and consultancy firms. These companies, they say, prefer candidates whose lessons from the slowdown are larded with an entrepreneurial background even if it means paying more.